Managed care developed in the United States as a mechanism for constraining the growth of health care costs by controlling the delivery system. This approach originated in the western United States in the form of staff model plans such as Kaiser Permanente which employed physicians and other caregivers directly. In the private health insurance industry, managed care plans controlled costs and the delivery of care by restricting hospital utilization, such as admissions and lengths of stay, by limiting access to specialists, and by encouraging healthful behaviors among subscribers.

During the 1980s and 90s:

Managed care expanded rapidly in the United States. In private health insurance, a major shift occurred from traditional indemnity insurance to managed ...

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This is a discussion of the managed care system in the United States.

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